“Araby”

The tedious events that delay the narrator’s trip indicate
that no room exists for love in the daily lives of Dubliners, and
the absence of love renders the characters in the story almost anonymous. Though
the narrator might imagine himself to be carrying thoughts of Mangan’s
sister through his day as a priest would carry a Eucharistic chalice
to an altar, the minutes tick away through school, dinner, and his
uncle’s boring poetic recitation. Time does not adhere to the narrator’s
visions of his relationship. The story presents this frustration
as universal: the narrator is nameless, the girl is always “Mangan’s
sister” as though she is any girl next door, and the story closes
with the narrator imagining himself as a creature. In “Araby,” Joyce
suggests that all people experience frustrated desire for love and
new experiences.